1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ink-jet recording heads, recording element substrates, methods for manufacturing ink-jet recording heads, and methods for manufacturing recording element substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known full-line ink-jet recording heads are manufactured by aligning a plurality of recording element substrates composed of, for example, silicon or glass such that the recording element substrates are brought into contact with each other at end surfaces thereof (European Patent No. 0376514). However, since the recording element substrates are aligned by being brought into contact with each other in this method of manufacturing the full-line ink-jet recording heads, variations in accuracy in cutting the recording element substrates directly correspond to the accuracy of discharge port arrangement.
To avoid this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-127127 describes an ink-jet recording head, including a plurality of recording element substrates disposed on a supporting member so as to be separated from one another, capable of reducing the variations in the accuracy in cutting the recording element substrates by changing the intervals between the substrates in accordance with the variations. Since the cutting accuracy of dicing machines that cut the recording element substrates is about ±15 μm, the possible density of discharge ports is about 360 dpi with consideration of the width of walls of ink ejecting nozzles, the diameter of the discharge ports, and the like.
However, in order to meet the recent demand for ink-jet recording heads with higher recording speed and higher image quality from the market, the number of the discharge ports is being increased from 64 or 128, to 256, for example, and the density of the discharge ports is also being increased from 300 dpi to 600 dpi, for example. That is, it becomes more difficult to reduce the variations in the accuracy in cutting the recording element substrates using the known method of changing the distance between the substrates in accordance with variations since the intervals between the discharge ports are being reduced.